Monday, March 06, 2006

6:30 Senate Confirms 2 District Court Nominations By a vote of 89-0, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Thomas Johnston to be United States District Judge.  By unanimous consent, the Senate then approved the nomination of Aida Delgado-Colon to be United States District Judge for the District of Puerto Rico.  The Senate has now returned to the consideration of the LIHEAP bill. 6:33:17 PM

6:03 Senate Voting on Second District Judge Nomination The Senate is now voting on the nomination of Thomas Johnston to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia. 6:03:06 PM

6:00 Batten Nomination Approved The Senate just approved the nomination of Timothy Batten by a vote of 88-0. 6:01:23 PM

5:35 Senate Voting on District Judge Nomination The Senate is now voting on the nomination of Timothy Batten to be a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia. 5:40:58 PM

4:50 Senator Lott Stresses Campaign Finance Not To Be Included In Current Lobbying Reform After the Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, Senator Chris Dodd, spoke on the issue of public financing of campaigns, Senator Trent Lott addressed the issue on the floor.  Senator Lott agreed with Senator Dodd that the financing of campaigns should be examined, but expressed his opposition to the public financing of Senate and House races.  He expressed his views on campaign financing and then stressed that this issue would not be part of the lobbying reform legislation debate that is currently on the floor. 4:55:45 PM

2:15 Senator Lott Addresses Lobbying Reform Senator Trent Lott, the Chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee, is currently addressing lobbying and ethics reform. Senator Lott believes some Senate rule changes are needed because there are areas of legitimate concern. Senator Lott is highlighting some of the major provisions included in the legislation that the Rules Committee voted out last week. These provisions include the issue of earmark reform, public disclosure of conference reports, gifts from lobbyists, third-party funded travel and so forth.    2:30:39 PM

1:15 Senator Reid Discusses Ethics and Lobbying Reform Proposals The Minority Leader, Senator Harry Reid, came to the Floor to discuss lobbying reform legislation.  Senator Reid stressed that the Congress needs to expand disclosure and tighten existing rules that have been abused.  He said that we need to find a way to restore public faith in the integrity of the federal government.  1:38:21 PM

Senate To Convene at 1:00 The Senate will convene at 1:00 today and will be in a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.  A series of roll call votes on judicial nominees is expected to occur today around 5:30.  Looking ahead, the Senate is expected to spend the majority of this week debating lobbying reform legislation. Last week, the Senate Rules and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees both voted out legislation dealing with lobbying and ethics reform. This week, the Senate is also expected to continue debating legislation to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).  A vote to cut off debate on this legislation is expected to occur on Tuesday morning.   Senate Appropriations panels continue to review the Bush Administration's Fiscal Year 2007 budget request, including the newest supplemental request for $92.2 billion, largely for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Congressional hearings on the Administration's funding requests will continue throughout this week. 10:47:04 AM